Shopping Guide
Tohoku Zunko is a character who supports the Tohoku region of Japan. She was born in October 2011, the same year the Tohoku Earthquake hit Japan. Since she is copyright-free, corporations centered in Tohoku and creators who would like to aid the region can use her without having to obtain permission prior.
Tohoku Zunko became popular through the speech synthesizer application Voiceroid that uses the voice of Satomi Saito, who is known for her role as Tainaka Ritsu from K-On!. Zunko is now advancing into a novel. The decision was made based on the reactions of fans regarding the original short novel that unfolded on Twitter beginning in June 2012. The novel starred characters from all areas of Japan.
Niniko Edomura, the designer of the original character, will draw the cover illustration. The novel will be written by Toshio Sato. It is scheduled for release this summer by PHP Institute.
There is also a unique Tohoku Zunko project going on. They are looking for “sacred areas” in the Tohoku region that will appear in the story as locations. The regions that get accepted as locations will be involved in collaborations such as helping sell the novel. After the 3D CG model was completed in February, a user video on Nico Nico Douga that combined it with the Voiceroid became a big hit reaching 3 million replays. From here on as well, Tohoku Zunko will be used in even more user-created content, so keep an eye on her.
Tohoku Zunko:
http://zunko.jp/ (Japanese)
Source:
http://animeanime.jp/article/2013/04/14/13686.html (Japanese)